When disaster strikes; Out of this rubble

Why go business district tornado damage survey Franklin Avenue between second and third 212 unsafe structurally. To 18 on site. Sounds like one of four completely demolished one of the six completely demolished 1 0 8 completely demolished. Elm Street 100 and say. 200. I'm saying three home runs say unsafe. A om. That's what it says right there. Biggest life on that sign they got stuck up in front of my building unsafe you know what that means Mildred. It's the next thing to condemnation. That's what it means. They'll condemn my store building and I'm a dead duck. After 30 years in business 30 years at that same location and the point is now get this movie. The point is it's not on say tornado damage sure but nothing that can be patched up repaired fixed up just like it was before.

That's what my engineer says. I took him down there and he says that building serve a bunch of got rocks in their heads. They come in here from out of town and trot around with their little notebooks unsafe unsafe unsafe that's all they can right. It's no skin off their noses. If that building's going to be pulled down in a in a business with it the quicker they get through the quicker they can go home. So don't stand around in the rain and take a good look or know just right down unsafe and high tail it out here. What do they care what the situation really is who they bankrupt or who they don't they're not going to be here to pick up the pieces rubble and wind. A greater city shall come. In all of the physical improvements that connote new architectural design. And more rigid adherence to later code to build this shall add to our economy. Unquestionably this will attract followers. He's more into our city. So that we could.

Easily visualize a city of two. Hundred. People or more in the next few. Hours. Those who. Would lift our heads with courage and. As we mark the path of opportunities we shall take the pre sage a great awakening. Lessons. Radio television the University of Texas presents when disaster strikes a series of programs designed to show how present day Americans meet the crisis of a disaster situation. All over our nation. Social scientists are seeking through special studies to find out how we as a people react to some of the widespread catastrophes. In these broadcasts. Dr. Harry Moore

director of disaster research at the University of Texas and the Hogg foundation for mental health have made it possible for us to share some of the things these scientists have found. When disaster strikes is produced and recorded by radio television. The University of Texas under a grant. The Education. Television and Radio some. Cooperation with the National Association of education. Today's program of this week. At the beginning of this program you heard three men one spoke as an engineer reading a tornado damage survey. One is a businessman struggling to restore his damaged business and one is a minister urging

his congregation to courage and optimism. Together they represent the people of an American community devastated by disaster and their words are rooted in documented fact. Here to talk about what those words imply significance to us all is Dr. Harry more professor of sociology at the University of Texas and author of the recently published book tornadoes over Texas a penetrating study of disaster reactions. The important thing for us to note as we remember the words of these three people is a direction H was facing mentally and emotionally when he spoke these mental and emotional outlooks Jad migrate many people of mine disaster strikes and they have it Chrissy all bearing on how well and how quickly a community or a couple us from catastrophe. After 30 years in business 30 years in the same location. Reaching back to that safe sane wild it was here before the tornado blew it away.

Trying to restore it that may be a while as we knew it. Nothing that can't be patched up pay or fixed up just like it was before. The engineer was present at the strange and frank ways I'm trying to make sense of the fact. That they. Have this trick right. Survey doubts I began when I was six Elm Street. Say three hundred and say. And the minister was facing forward looking ahead to the future. To a new. Apps even. While on the run. Out of this rubble and when a greater city shall come.

We lift. What happened with Corey. And as we mark the path of opportunities we shall take the receipt just great. There for many get past the desperate present the onset and future people find themselves in faced one direction and then another as they pass through the phases of a crisis situation. Those periods a reaction which we are beginning to see as a common pattern from one decides to to another. Take it on the radio for instance. San Angelo Texas did. Waco Texas too. The same year the same day the self same afternoon when a giant funnel roared across the West Texas plains straight for a modest outlying community of homes and stores and churches and schools. This. Was the office. Through. Their budget. To join the

shelter. Her. Forever. Disaster. Through with San Angelo now but not content with 10 deaths 66 people seriously injured. Three hundred and twenty homes wrecked a school partially demolished searching across Texas for another place to strike and finding it two hours later in the heart of Waco's business district. At a late afternoon rush hour where a tornado dips in a nightmarish driving rain roaring when I'm surely coming. But was disaster sudden overwhelming irresistible.

People did not expect it were not prepared for and had no defenses against it. In less time than you have been listening to this program they're accustomed secure and familiar world had disappeared. It happened so fast. Then after it was over with. Just no. I just got a feeling I don't know how to explain. No that's how they said they felt dazed. Some said they didn't recognize close friends even members of their family. This is a face period a reaction a time of stunned but well to my disbelief I refusal or inability to accept the facts of this I asked. It is a period of inactivity. People move in no direction because for a time they have lost their bearings. The mind hangs back on willing to draw close enough for a clear picture of this frightening wild and the guidepost dugong the physical

landmarks have disappeared. We had to go over to see our sister in law and we started off. We couldn't see any landmarks or anything you know. We didn't know where we was until we got to the fairgrounds. The mental landmarks have vanished too. I just walked around in there you know I just don't know what to do. And even the emotional landmarks are missing. The least thing makes are sick scenes like always say why she'd nauseated then at the time of the tornado. No that's the thing. You didn't get sick then did you honey No I didn't because I never had been in the storm or anything like that. I didn't know to be scared for a brief while then people do not know how to feel do not know where to go. Do not know what to do. But this phase of immobility is shown at Leo. It is followed by a period of intense activity. Get moving. There's people in the building. And the people sprang into

action action to rescue the injured. So you fellas get your shoulders on that you're back there down that road. We can shortcut these crossed embers we can better we can run down the hill. Action to reduce suffering when you nurses up over the first aid station the other two standby woodworking injections for these stretcher cases coming out. They've got to have some over three blocks of that rubble to get to the ambulances. That's got to be right action to bring order out of the chaos and the devastation. It was a. Lot of work. What's left of it. Oh boy is this is it. Agents help clean up your place mister. I could use some all right. Sure ain't getting to first base by myself. I got quite a job here neighbor anybody can see that. The way they told us down at the fire station could put the household stuff you figure to use again in one pile salvaged lumber and bricks and suchlike another pile and the stuff to be burned in another pile.

That's about the size of it. Well and how do you say we all just roll up our sleeves and have a go at our ok friend. This is EMI agency a rescue period in the decides to sequence all the people's thoughts all the efforts concentrated on the desperate here and now as they struggle to put things right by shift strength they can. The situation still is not seen clearly. All right Ali. Or there's a give and then a bayed with no play on the standing of what they ought to accomplish. But I help those who are so urgently in need of help and it helps those who act as well relieving that tensions offering a lifeline back to reality. For God's sake do something seems to be the prevailing and heartfelt sentiment in San Angelo and in Waco in those first hours after the tornadoes.

And for many hours thereafter they did something. Giving up physical effort as a way of doing something and they gave physical effort. Send us over here to relieve you folks. Thanks a lot pal but we're sticking with this one. Look is no sweat we know this Johm couple of boys here did rescue work during the war. And why don't you knock it off. Get some coffee and food. We're not tired now just get on your feet. Look how long you've been trying to get to this poor old lady anyway. Twelve fourteen hours on a job like this. Are you going to lift this stuff off with eyebrow tweezers practically. Are you going to be here some more hours. We'll be here some more to tan twenty yet don't make any difference. All night long we've been telling her you hang on missed you hang on don't give up. We'll get you out. Well she didn't give up. Bless your heart she's hanging on and brother so are we. Giving the goods is a way of doing something too. And they gave. It was great generosity an almost

complete selflessness. Those made the climate of the rescue period people and institutions so merged their particular aims in a common effort. Look at those soldiers. They haven't lost a thing in Waco and they nearly turned themselves wrong side out worked in Slieve and help in every way you can think. Old rivalries and conflicts were forgotten or pushed aside in the concerted effort to set things to rights just worked like mad never stopped. And my sister in law we never did hit it off too well before but she worked right along with me till she nearly collapsed. She just knew I guess we had to get the house ready so we could get these children home and live and get my husband back to his job get things back to normal. Let's note that phrase back to normal because that's the direction in which the people at this stage of a disaster situation are trying to go back to the status quo ante to things as they were

before. Just went right back down to that store where we bought all our stuff when we first moved here from Wichita Falls and bought every livin stick as near as we could get to like what we had before the storm. But there comes a time when people can say that the road back to normal is closed blocked by a task that threatens to overwhelm them in spite of their friends IT efforts. Now look at everybody. The first one to four hours of this they went around in circles in one direction. The last 24 hours we change direction but we're still going around in circles. I say we've got more here than we can say grace over the highs stimulation of saving lives is gone. The people are tired in body and in spirit. The outstretched hand of aid and comfort is beginning to draw a bucket and judicious evaluation. Well she says let's think a minute now. Do you really need all those rooms. I said I don't know about Needham. I head home and I want to back. And that's when she said high and mighty and snippy as you please. We don't have the funds to

gratify wishes Mrs Jessop. It's all we can do to supply needs. The open hand of generosity is beginning to clench into the fist of frustration. My own stock in my own store and I'm not allowed to go near it. Fine come off when a man is forbidden to protect his own property. If he's got any property left to protect with the rain pouring in and those record happy characters running wild with bulldozers all over the place. I didn't notice any forbidden going on when I was handing out rain coats and boots and gloves and flashlights free gratis for nothing. No sir they were glad enough dad be in my store then. Well I'll tell you one thing that's free gratis is out. If they're going to ruin me I don't have to help them. I'm putting in a claim for all that merchandise and I'm going to collect every last penny. The losses become apparent and the people begin to seek someone to blame for their losses. All conflicts are remembered and fanned and the new life

new ones are created institutions. Even religious ones are attacked and accused. Close that word don't you mind your percentage ROA nowhere else. Good blankets to Tao's and sheets. Well they've got a bad back. Bails on them that's what I'm here to sell to some other political campaigns maybe undertaken to fix blame and assess punishment for failure to solve the community's problems. This is a brickbat stage of dishonest a reaction. It's the beginning of a period of reorientation and it is critical what will happen to the place in the family the institution or the community will depend on which direction is chosen. At this crossroads in Waco in San Angelo some turn back on able to wean themselves from the past. From the way things were before and I don't know I just can't help feeling bad to have people come up and see this big nice house.

They tell me well I'm better off than I ever was. It was because I had to tell him I'd trade it all back to Mara if they'd take me back to the day before the storm and let things be just like they were then and some stayed to where they were rooted in apathy and defeat. I don't know. We just go out there and sit and look at where the house was. Can't seem to work ourselves up to what to do. Sell that lot or rebuild or move plumb away or what. But by far the most of them moved ahead taking what they had. Using it to build toward a better future. Well now here's the way I look at it. If the taxes aren't paid the schools can't run next year. But folks out here they can't rebuild from the ground up and pay taxes too. Now we got this money that's been sent in for the sole and express purpose of helping these folks get back on their feet. I say let's use some of it to pay off those taxes. Give him a breather there and then let's take some more of it and pay for school lunches for those that got set back too far to swing that. This way we will have homes and schools

and kids in those schools. And I'd say we're not so bad off after all that all. I'd say in lots of ways excusing those that were killed and those who were hurt were better off. We got power and sewerage lines we never had before. Some of us have had to dig pretty deep for the wherewithal and we will be a while catching up. But Lakeview home side cleaner and better looking place to live in than it ever was before. And I don't think anybody here old and I the folks over in Angelo are whistling a lot friendlier tune our way since they found out we didn't blow away and leave them after all who knows. And I'd tell you taken it by and large and all things considered we're in pretty good shape and I look to see us in even better shape us in the home city too. As time goes on. This marked optimism we found an abundant measure among people who were still

grappling with the problems imposed by the sastra. It seems to go hand in hand with the status self-reliance of man like this. I never was a man that would think oh well I just ought to go ahead and quit or anything like that because I know you say that. Man that's raising a family. It just gives up. Throws up and quits. I wouldn't get anywhere. For their sake I've got to keep on keepin on. It is in keeping with the pace of their own so women like this. I just keep fighting it. I never have give up. Beside just. Have to be dead to give. The optimistic outlook so widespread among the people sometimes flowing Waco is a kind of spirit which says when decides to strikes. This is a new and strange and. Frightening. Thing. Let's find out what sort of. Well yes but let's be hopeful that we can reconstruct it. For the better. A Well a step. This

present setup for the most significant sign. That. Said to me it goes far. Explain why these cities are coping well and. Why they have risen so swift. Is the people's hearty confidence in themselves and in their future as revealed in the Waco San Angelo disaster study echoed in the findings of other social scientist probing reactions and other disaster stricken communities. Here to explore this question with us is Dr. Harry B Williams technical director of the disaster research group division of anthropology and psychology of the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council. Dr. Williams this series of programs has presented detailed and factual evidence about human behavior in disasters. But now the listener may want to summing up

an answer of yes or no to his big question. What is the overall picture of how humans behave in disaster. Is it a hopeful picture or is it pessimistic. Are people strong or weak. Are they heroes or cowards. Can they take it or not. Scientists of course do not like to give yes or no answers to broad general questions. Scientists working on the problem of human behavior in disaster have tried to break the big problem down into many smaller problems. And this is led to a very important discovery. This discovery is that people react in many different ways to disaster. To be sure most people feel afraid when they or their loved ones are in great danger. But we have learned very clearly that all people do not behave the same way when they are afraid. And the same person may behave in entirely different ways at two different times. Though he is equally afraid both times many different groups of people have found themselves in places like public buildings or nightclubs when the threat of

fire occurred. Sometimes they panicked and these are the cases that get written up in the newspapers. But very often they did not panic at all though they may have been very frightened they kept calm and waited until the fire was put out or they got out of the building in an orderly way. We have learned then beyond any doubt that danger and disaster do not automatically cause people to go to pieces to become helpless and dependent to panic to steal and loot to riot to forget their moral standards or to become mentally deranged by the same token danger and disaster do not automatically cause all people to become saints or he rode in a disaster though there may be some of each. Most people are neither cowards nor heroes sinners or Saints. One should not be worried about a disaster because he is afraid he cannot be a hero. Remember one can be very calm effective and useful in disaster without being a hero. It is also important to remember this. The anticipation of danger horror and

hardship is usually worse than the real thing itself. You are not likely to be so afraid or horrified or hard up as you think you would be when you just imagine yourself in a danger in a disaster situation. Remember also that a television show or a movie impacts all the problems and dangers and sadness into a brief time. Everything comes all at once. This gives the impression of a problem which is too overwhelming to cope with. But in a real disaster people deal with separate problems one of the time what looks impossible in a 30 minute TV programme becomes manageable over a period of hours days weeks or months. We need much more research to learn and explain all these different ways that people behave in disaster. This much we know already though. Mass panics where people wildly trample each other do not happen very often. Looting usually does not become a serious problem. Many people are temporarily dazed in a disaster but the majority of them are soon able to do something

to help themselves and each other. And this is what they do. They need help to be sure but they do not wait for help to arrive before they begin pulling people out of the debris and getting them first aid in medical treatment. Bickering sometimes arises after the main emergency to life has been dealt with. But the community does not fall apart. The overwhelming majority of families if circumstances permit soon begin to repair the damage. Carry on with their family life in their jobs and go back to their normal way of living. They bounce back. They do not give up. Our research and our science have not progressed far enough for us to be able to say for sure which persons will behave in which way or when these different kinds of behavior will occur in a community and when they will not. We are sure of one thing. People can be strong. They can be calm. They can cope with all sorts of dangers and hardships and horrible experiences. Live through them and continue to lead normal and

productive lives. We know they can because over and over we have seen them do it better still. We know that most victims of most disasters do justice. Now if we cannot predict exactly what people will do in a tornado we certainly cannot predict exactly what they would do in a nuclear attack. The horrors dangers hardships and problems of such an attack are much greater than those of a tornado or a flood or hurricane or bombing with conventional bombs. However we do think we are entirely safe in saying that human beings have a tremendous reservoir of strength and ability to cope with dangers and hardships. A tremendous ability to bounce back and keep going. This means something very important. It means this if communities and their officials and agencies. If our government at all levels will make plans for Citizen Protection for supplies for communication and leadership and the other things which these radio programs have shown to be important

and if we as citizens support and participate in these plans our leaders will find a spirit and strength in the American people which they can depend upon which will meet them halfway when the chips are down when disaster strikes. Radio television the University of Texas has brought you the final program in the series of seven broadcast designed to show how modern Americans react to the crisis of a disaster situation. Today's program out of this rubble was prepared with the cooperation of Dr. Harry Moore of the Department of Sociology of the University of Texas and the Hogg foundation for mental health. Dr. Moore is author of the book tornadoes over Texas. A penetrating analysis of the San Angelo and Waco disasters published by the University of Texas press. We're indebted to Dr. Henry Dee Williams technical director of disaster research group National Academy of Sciences Gneisenau Research Council. For his contribution to this

program. And to the division of defense and disaster relief the governor's office the state of Texas for the use of their files. When disaster strikes is directed by our cigars from scripts by the Durham twins out of the supervision of Robert F. Inc. Special Music is supervised by Elena Paige who composed the original score. Your narrator is Jimmy Morris. Cactus Pryor speaking. Out of this rubble was produced and recorded by radio television at the University of Texas under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center and is being distributed by the eyesores illustration was traditional. This is the NOAA E.B. Radio Network.